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John Bradford, England, Reformer

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John Bradford, England, Reformer John Bradford, England, Reformer January 31. John Bradford. Bradford worked hard and rose fast. He started in service to Sir John Harrington and became responsible for handling King Henry VIII’s money and went on to become Deputy Paymaster of Henry VIII’s forces when they besieged a city on the French coast of the English Channel. When Bradford became a Christian, he was ordained to be a travelling preacher. He sold all ‘his chains, rings, brooches, and jewels of gold” which he used to wear, so he could give the money to the poor and the ill. When he heard a sermon preached by Hugh Latimer teaching that if you’ve stolen, you must pay back what you’ve taken, he felt terrible about a fraud someone had committed and Bradford had covered up. He would not rest until the man confessed and paid the money back. Unfortunately, the man was Sir John Harrington. Nobody said doing what’s right would be easy. Soon Bradford faced a radical political change—Bloody Mary took the throne. But Bradford kept on speaking out about Jesus and injustice. No matter the injustice, Bradford continued until this date in 1555, when he was condemned to death for illegal preaching. Here’s his story. Some men have a way with words, but God’s Word has a way with men. Bradford had always been smart and talented and hard-working. And he was young when he had already worked his way up to the position of clerk to the King’s Treasurer. But God made Himself and His goodness known to Bradford. And everything changed. Bradford gave up his career and went to learn more about Jesus—who He is, what He does, and what’s required of men. Soon Bradford was prepared and began to tell people that a life with God was available to them now. Even the hardest of hearts softened from what Bradford said. Next he became King Edward’s chaplain and travelled throughout England and preached that the grace of God and faith in Jesus were the keys to authentic Christian living. He was a man at war against lies that held people captive and kept them from knowing the true God and how much He loved them. “The sacrifice God desires is a humble spirit—O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject” (Psalm 51:17 NET). This was a dream job—to present truth and fight evil everywhere he found it—but it didn’t last long. Fifteen-year-old King Edward fell ill, died, and was succeeded by his older half-sister Mary Tudor—who wanted to restore the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church. Mary Tudor called the Reformers “heretics” and strove to wipe them out. The heretics called her Bloody Mary. At a huge gathering of the public outside Old St. Paul’s Cathedral, Queen Mary’s chaplain was preaching from an outdoor pulpit. The audience—many of whom had come to know the love of God through the Reformers—got more and more agitated. Bradford and another man had been assigned to guard the chaplain, which they did. But someone in the crowd threw a dagger and narrowly missed the chaplain’s head. Of course, he ducked. But the crowd got more aggressive, so Bradford stepped up to the pulpit, rebuked the angry crowd, and managed to calm the uproar. When they did calm down, Bradford and the other men struggled to get the chaplain safely away. Then the bizarre happened. Queen Mary had Bradford arrested for illegal preaching and stirring up the rebellion. He had to stand before a council and defend himself. The accusers explained their reasoning—someone had thrown a dagger at the chaplain’s head, and the crowd was about to overrun and trample him. Bradford had the audacity to stand at the pulpit and calm them down—saving the chaplain’s life. He had no permission to do that. And since he had the power to calm them, that was proof he had started the riot. He refused to denounce his beliefs, so they condemned him and locked him up. As always Bradford took the setback in stride—and saw what happened as something God had allowed. To Bradford it was an opportunity to serve. In prison, he regularly held religious meetings and preached twice a day unless he was sick, and nobody stopped him. He was so trusted by the guards that in the evenings, he would leave the jail to minister to the sick—with only the promise he would return. The jailers knew he would come back, and he always did. Imprisoned for two years, Bradford briefly shared a cell with three other well-known Reformers. As it got close to the time he would be executed, he wrote to them, “Oh! dear fathers … I am about to leave my flesh in a world where I received it; but I go to a better world.… God grant it may make my persecutors better men.” He told them good-bye, “trusting shortly to see you where, having finished our warfare, we shall associate with all those who have faithfully followed the banner of the Captain of our salvation, made perfect through suffering, and never again be called to the field.” When the day of Bradford’s execution came, he was chained to the stake with another young Reformer. Publicly, Bradford asked forgiveness of anyone he had wronged, and he freely forgave all who had wronged him. Then before they lit the fire, he said to the young man, “Be of good comfort brother; for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night!” Who could you talk to today? Some men have a way with words, but God’s Word has a way with men. Mayhew, Richard A. “John Bradford (1510—1555): ‘O England, England, Repent!’” Crich Baptist Church - Derbyshire, UK. Accessed September 19, 2020. https://www.crichbaptist.org/articles/john-bradford/. [intro] Tracy Borman, The Private Lives of the Tudors. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2016. p. 240. Andrews, William. “St. Paul’s Cross.” from Old Church Lore. London: The Hull Press, 1891. pp.120–127. http:// elfinspell.com/AndrewsCross.html. Story written by: Paula Moldenhauer, http://paulamoldenhauer.com/ .
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